SHOOTING MALLAKDS IN A SNOW STORM. 73 
CHAPTER VII. 
SHOOTING MALLARDS IN A SNOW STORM. 
THE very best shooting may be had at times, during 
the heaviest snow storms. The ducks seek hidden, 
sheltered, cosy retreats, protected from the violence of 
the storm, and dislike to leave their feeding grounds. 
At such times, they leave the corn-fields, large ponds, 
rivers, and all unsheltered places, and hie themselves 
to the heaviest timbered woods, where under the pro- 
tecting shelter of the large trees, drooping willows, or 
in quiet, smooth bayous, they sit all day long, feeding 
on buds, acorns, smart-weed, larvee and the roots of 
grass ; or, preening themselves, will sit around in 1n- 
dolent leisure. 
On such a day, when the wind is driving the drifting, 
blinding snow into one’s face, or the melted snow is 
trickling down his neck, as the young hunter walks be- 
fore the blinding storm, he should avoid the prairies, 
the open sloughs, and look for some quiet, sheltered 
spot, and there he will surely find the birds. The drifting 
snow, the howling wind, as it plays through the leafless 
branches, breed in the ducks a spirit of uneasiness, and 
they fly singly, in pairs, or in flocks over the tall trees 
as they come in from the open places. The strong 
wind impedes their flight, the snow blinds them. Along 
they come, facing the storm, flying slowly over the tree- 
